The Cartography of the Derivation:
A Brief History of the Louisand Clärque Expedition

by Carlos L. P. Rizziani

This map, the first and most impressive of its kind, is the result of an arduous, unrelenting 40-year expedition across ungovernable expanses, swaths of rich morphology, unaccusative prairies, dangerous constraints, and inhospitable aspectual projections that constitute the known expanses of The Derivation. Prior to this vast undertaking, which cost the lives of more than 28 brave men and women (and at least nine children), efforts to properly govern the peoples of The Derivation were mostly ineffective. The very nature of political borders and binding domains were often in dispute, while secessions of various projections over resource rights and disputed territories often resulted in brutal acts of war. Efforts to establish trade routes and highways to facilitate movement, trade, and feature checking were hindered by poorly mapped constraints and maximal projections, often resulting in years of published literature on the subject being made obsolete. While some previous cartographers found relative success in publishing very localized and specialized maps (see Kratzer 1996, Rizzi 1999, and Chomsky 1987, among many others), a grand effort to unify the population in their knowledge of these rich and fascinating territories was desperately needed.

Louis and Clärque set out with a plan both narrow and wide in its scope: to finally and formally map The Derivation. What you see before you is the ultimate fruit of their labors. By finally piecing together a truly expressive and explanatorily adequate map, fully marked for political and projection boundaries, the domains of states, events, and even individuals, they were able to better facilitate communication between probes and goals, goals and benefactors, and valencies and arguments. From the wild frontiers of the Causecusses to the Extended Projection Principalities, from the Adjuncts to the Topics, Louis and Clärque braved unprecedented danger and parasitic gaps in order to pave the way for a more unified, formal, system. While the future of our beloved analysis remains unclear, especially under the constant threat of functionalist invasion and minimalist instability, its rich and complex history will forever be preserved in this magnificent piece of cartographic achievement.